Rosenberger hires attorney after FBI inquiries

The office of Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville) confirmed Saturday that the Ohio House 91st District representative has hired a defense attorney in the wake of news that the FBI has been making inquiries about him.

The Wilmington News Journal reached out to Rosenberger’s office on Saturday. Spokesman Brad Miller told the News Journal via email, “We can confirm the information in the Dayton Daily News article yesterday, but at this time we are not making any further comment.”

The Dayton Daily News reported that Rosenberger said, “… as far as I know I have not been told I’m under investigation. As a precautionary measure, I went ahead and hired David Axelrod because I had been made aware and understand that the bureau is asking questions about things I may have been involved in. But that is only from a precautionary standpoint. I’m not going to answer any more questions than that.”

The paper also reported that FBI spokesman Todd Lindgren told them, “As a matter of policy we cannot confirm or deny the existence of a potential investigation.”

Why any investigation may possibly be taking place is not known.

WVXU reported Monday that the number two ranking member of the Ohio House, Speaker Pro Tem Kirk Schuring (R-Canton), said rumors that the Republican caucus will seek Rosenberger’s resignation are untrue.

“It’s a very ugly political season we’re in right now and these rumors – from what I know, with my contacts with our members – are totally false and unfounded,” Schuring told WVXU.

Rosenberger has had to tackle questions this year after some alleged embarrassing behavior by several Republicans in Columbus.

On March 21 the News Journal reported that a “mobile billboard” rolled through Clinton County to bring attention to what a government ethics watchdog organization said is the tepid response from Rosenberger to remarks made by two state lawmakers at a political event several weeks ago.

“Too many organizations make the mistake of assuming incidents of bad behavior by powerful individuals are one-time events. The opportunity to ask tough questions is before Speaker Rosenberger. But so far, he is silent,” said Scott Peterson, executive director of Checks and Balances Project.

The Associated Press reported in late January that “two Republican state lawmakers apologized for offensive remarks they made during a top House staffer’s going-away party that made light of recent sexual misconduct scandals and disparaged female lawmakers. State Rep. Bill Seitz of Cincinnati and state Sen. Matt Huffman of Lima separately expressed regret for vulgar and derogatory jokes cracked on Tuesday at the farewell celebration for House Chief of Staff Mike Dittoe.”

Their remarks came less than a week after the House completed newly mandated sexual harassment training.

In an acknowledgment letter to Seitz, Rosenberger said he was “disheartened by the careless and insensitive remarks” the representative made. He told Seitz he expects his remarks to be more thoughtful and his behavior more respectful going forward and he directed Seitz to personally apologize to State Rep. Candice Keller and former state Rep. Diana Fessler, according to AP.

Rosenberger responded April 3 to allegations made by a House of Representatives candidate against a current representative.

According to the Xenia Daily Gazette — like The Times-Gazette, an AIM Media Midwest publication — Jocelyn Smith, who is running against current District 73 Representative Rick Perales in the May primary, accused Perales of “kissing and choking” her in his vehicle in January 2015 as well fondling her. She also said he offered to exchange introducing a bill for a specialty license plate benefiting pancreatic cancer for sex. Smith has also said that the two were having a sexting relationship.

In the letter, Rosenberger told Smith — a Fairborn resident — that if the kissing, choking and fondling allegations are true that she should contact law enforcement officials as it does not fall under the Ohio House of Representatives purview, the Xenia paper reported.

However, Rosenberger said the legislation for sex accusation would “call into question both ethical and legal concerns.”

“Representative Perales admitted to an inappropriate texting relationship,” said Brad Miller, spokesperson for Rosenberger. “We were all kind of surprised that (choking) had come forward, having not heard anything about that. We were interested in gathering some more information … not rushing to make any judgment. The speaker is very serious about this if there are allegations of (physical abuse).”

In a press release that included a copy of Rosenberger’s letter, Smith said she will do what the speaker said.

“I intend to follow the speaker’s recommendation in doing exactly that,” said Smith, pointing out that she will be speaking to local and state criminal authorities in the very near future.

Smith added that “While (Perales) had previously sought sex regularly from me, there was no single meeting in which he said ‘if you have sex with me, I will pass this bill,’ because by then I had cut all ties with him. However, based on his repeatedly expressed desires, there is absolutely no doubt if I’d slept with him, he would have enthusiastically promoted the legislation. Besides, why would someone refuse to return phone calls about a bill to help people with cancer? He may not be convicted in a court of law, but he deserves to be convicted in the hearts of Ohioans.”

“Representative Perales has had a chance to look over the speaker’s letter,” Palmer said. “He believes that it’s the appropriate response that the speaker gave. There’s not really much else to it.”

Perales also denies all allegations.

“The representative has had a very consistent story from the beginning that there was no physical contact whatsoever,” Palmer said. “We as a campaign will not continue to be discussing these evolving allegations. It seems her story is not consistent.”